Antwerp Management School - one of the leading business schools in Europe - asked me to make an artwork for one of their classrooms. The classroom where the "3 Continent Masters of Global Management" have their courses was already completely restyled during the summer. For this classroom they were looking for a piece of art that would inspire the students and had to represent the young and international character of the business school. The theme for the artwork was "Global Citizenship", as this is one the pillars of the Antwerp Management School.

I knew I had to design artwork that needs to be impressive and occupy the vast space. The place set aside for the artwork was the wall above the entrance door. Therefore, a log narrow piece of art (14m x 1,25m), would fit snugly and which could be felt in the entire room.

The work has become a "collage": the background of the artwork is a world map made up of old stamps from traveling passports. This should make us feel that it is about our planet. The stamps refer to the national way of thinking, not global.

The "dégradé" on the background shows the viewer that the usage of those stamps is in the past and that we should move towards a global citizenship.

In the foreground you can see clips taken form passports from different countries . This tells the viewer that we are still part of a country, culture, race an religion, which is important because it gives meaning to our existence and will shape us further. The land-stamps have ben removed because we need to think more globally.

I have chose, images from passports that represent nature. Because nature is our most important asset we have on our planet. Other images feel more spiritual, as spirituality should help us in our path to Global Citizenship, and in the pursuit of its values.

The clips taken from the passports have been spaced throughout the artwork and are places in globes and spheres. This gives the idea of planets in the universe.

Can you identify the origin of the passports ? From left to right: Macao, Turkey, Mexico, China, Tajikistan, Thailand, Norway, US, Belgium and UK.

Since the Antwerp Management School was very pleased with the artwork they asked me to create another and smaller version of the work (140x50cm), see pictures below. This artwork is now being sold as a limited edition of 10 prints.The profit will go entirely to the AMS Fund. The objective of the AMS Fund is to encourage the development, the coaching and the education of students and young entrepreneurs from developing countries. The AMS Fund fellows will be offered the opportunity to enroll in a one-year full-time Master’s degree program at Antwerp Management School.Each edition (max 10) will be certified, signed and framed in wood.If you or your company is interested in acquiring such an artwork, please let me know.